Entry 87-1

Emily Shaffer’s Five Favorite Baits

The Diamond Shad

Editor's Note: Emily Shaffer of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a member of Strike King's professional team, and a 9-time Bassin' Gals Classic qualifier, has three first-place titles, 15 top-10 finishes and the WBFA 2002 Angler-of-the-Year title. With her career winnings at just over $200,000, Shaffer holds the record for the single largest bass, 9.01 pounds, weighed in at a Bassin' Gals Classic event, beating the 25-year history of the Bassmaster Classic and the 19-year history of the Bassin' Gals Classic. This week we'll look at Emily Shaffer's five favorite baits and how, where, when and why she fishes them.

Shaffer: I like to fish a Diamond Shad because it's such a good locator bait. I can cover a lot of water and find plenty of bass with the Diamond Shad. I feel this bait is especially effective in the pre-spawn when I fish big spawning flats where the bass may be located anywhere. This time of the year is when the bass move out of the deep water into shallow water and begin to look for bedding sites and then fan their beds to get ready for the spawn.

On sunny days, I like to throw the chrome-colored Diamond Shad. On cloudy, overcast days, I prefer the gold-colored Diamond Shad with a black back. I'll fish the fire-tiger color in stained water. I fish the Diamond Shad on a 7-foot-parabolic-bend rod so that I can make long casts and use 12-pound-test line. I modify my Diamond Shads by putting round-bend treble hooks on the front of the lure and EWG hooks on the back.

When I first start throwing the Diamond Shad, I'll use a steady retrieve. However, if the bass don't attack the bait, I'll try a pumping motion, or I'll reel the lure two or three times, kill the bait and let it fall. Too, sometimes I'll try other different types of retrieves until I get a strike. When I decide what kind of retrieve the bass want on that day on that lake, then that's the type retrieve I'll fish for the rest of the day. If I'm looking for bass during the practice day of a tournament, once I catch a fish, I'll release that bass and keep on fishing to locate as many spots with as many bass as I can. If I'm in a tournament, I'll cast right back to the place where I've caught the bass with the Diamond Shad and attempt to catch more.

Before, I've caught as many as 14 bass, weighing 1- to 2-pounds each, on 14 casts with the Diamond Shad. On the day that happened, I was burning the Diamond Shad through the water with a reel that had a 7:1 gear ratio. My partner was using a reel with a 5:1 gear ratio and wasn't taking any bass. I personally think that the type of reel you use is one of the secrets of fishing the Diamond Shad successfully. When the bass are biting aggressively in schools, you can't reel the Diamond Shad fast enough to keep the bass from biting it.




 

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